Lockdown delay is a price worth paying

For the first time during this pandemic, I think we should delay lifting restrictions. Looking at the latest data, it seems that the Prime Minister was right to postpone ‘Freedom Day’.

I am no zero-Covider. Its clear restrictions can be as harmful as Covid. Last September, it seemed obvious that a ‘circuit breaker’ lockdown would have just postponed the wave further into winter. In February, the government did the right thing by explicitly ruling out an elimination policy and introducing its roadmap.

At the front of everyone’s minds should be minimising harm. This time around, minimising harm means delaying reopening.

The situation is completely different from other stages of the pandemic. Vaccines are preventing hospitalisations and deaths. But we are faced with a variant with much higher transmissibility and an increased risk of hospitalisation. One dose of the vaccine has proven less effective than had been hoped (although it is lucky that after two doses the jabs remain strong).